New Drake track sees records

It didn’t take long for the new Drake at Drake Stadium to produce as record time. For the second straight year Olivet Nazarene won the women’s college distance medley relay and broke the record they set last year. Sophomore Bethany McCoy ran the 16-hundred meter anchor leg.

McCoy says she heard the announcer say they could break the record and that gave them the boost to push for the record as they wanted it pretty bad. McCoy says she was nervous because she puts a lot of pressure on herself, but knows her teammates don’t put a lot of pressure on her.

Kip Janvrin may have retired from the decathlon but he is not done competing. the 40-year-old Janvrin ran the master’s 800 for the first time and won it. He says he thought about running it for quite awhile and says he finally found time in his schedule to run it. Janvrin says he still wants to run on the Drake track and this gives him an opportunity since he can no longer put in the time required for the decathlon.

Janvrin says he is happy to still be able to take part. He says now that he’s 40 he can compete against guys his own age and he says that makes it enjoyable.

After setting a Drake Relays record in the prelims Burlington’s Jenna Caffrey lowered the mark even further in the finals of the 100 meter hurdles as she won her third straight title. Caffrey says she just wanted to run her best and hope to set a new record. Caffrey says she was so focused she doesn’t remember anything between the start and the finish. Caffrey said she was overwhelmed and didn’t have the words to describe setting the record again.

Mick Kuchel of Kingsley-Pierson won his third title in the boys 110 meter hurdles. Kuchel says he thought he had a good start and felt a competitor coming up beside him and found another gear and put it all together.

Tiffany Synacek from Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson cleared five feet eight inches to win her second straight high jump championship even though she had not been going well the past couple of weeks. Synacek says she doesn’t practice much and couldn’t get her steps down. She says a meet last week got canceled so she couldn’t try her new steps. Synacek missed on three attempts to clear five-ten and equal the Drake Relays record.

Curt Benniger ran a four minute anchor leg to lead Notre Dame to victory in the four by 1,600 meter relay. Benniger says he knew there were only a couple of guys in the field that could ruin it for him.

Benniger felt good when he got the baton with the lead and says when you’re running that fast and you get a gap, it makes it tough for anyone to come back and beat you.

Faith Burt of Cedar Falls won the high school girls 100-meter title and credits a great start. Burt says it was one of her best starts ever.

After finishing sixth a year ago Bryan Collins of West Des Moines Valley pulled an upset in the boys 100-meter dash as he edged teammate Zac Sandvig for the win. Collins says he thought he’d always be at Drake, but never thought of himself as being a champing. Collins says it’s an honor just to be in the same field as the other runners.